Underbelly: The Art of Slowing Down™ is a non-verbal somatic practice (embodied meditation) where we reclaim our slow in a fast and overwhelming world. Our dominant culture survives on speed, which keeps problematic and oppressive structures in place at the devastating cost of our well-being and planetary health. Underbelly is a somatic response to the loss of slowness in an increasingly urgent world drowning in climate collapse, AI threat, technological addiction, diseased capitalism and polarization, as well as historical nervous system trauma from continuing racism, colonialism, and patriarchy. It's time to acknowledge that we are standing at a terrifying precipice. Instead of pushing through injury or confusion, we cultivate a willingness to know things as they stand. It's time to surrender the rush and instead, show up with our heartbreak to encounter what is becoming. It's time to dismantle the hurry and have a conversation with the present moment.
This practice helps us explore the art of slowing down with ourselves, each other, and our current environment. There is space to metabolize our emotions, strengthen empathy and intuition, and develop an intimate relationship with our bodies and the world around us. We practice being in the questions themselves- listening and yielding to the intelligence of life without pushing, controlling, or fixing. Room is made for nuance, complexity and paradox. Our individuation and togetherness are felt in a group field—deepening our presence and attunement with one another, co-regulating our nervous systems, being held, witnessed, considered, and noticed exactly as we are. We meet ourselves AS IS, without grasping for more, escaping, transcending, or resigning. We re-learn what it is to be relational instead of transactional. To commune instead of consume. To be of service instead of self-serving. To rest back into more vastness and organicity, releasing tight circuits of linearity, programming and conditioning we've inherited or been entrained to. Spend quality time with your body, breath, and being. Come back to the foundations. Sink back into reverence. Voyage beneath the surface of our fast culture, and dive into a slow sanctuary for unearthing what is alive, tender, and honest for you in every moment.
This experience is not a solution, method, workshop or teaching of tools. It is not a business, ceremony, or ecstatic dance/contact improv jam/cuddle party. It is a somatically driven experimental space that supports bodily intelligence, nervous system co-regulation, ample rest, and radical self/community care. We incrementally and progressively nourish the foundational fabric of how we relate, strengthen the connective tissue of our humanity, and allow ourselves to remember what we have forgotten. This work is not done through grand gestures or patterns of immediacy, but rather, subtle...steady...patient...little steps. Every Underbelly experience varies depending on what is alive in the group field at that given time. All movement forms are welcome (authentic/personal movement, sensory/somatic movement, contact (improv) inspired movement etc). So is resting, pausing, meditating, stillness, witnessing etc. Participants may explore being solo, in negative space (proximity without touch) or discovering connection with others through consensual energy and/or touch.
No prior experience necessary, just an open mind/heart.
Music: emotional, slow, deep, meditative, experimental, film scores, nature sounds, ambient, soulful, silent, and live. Listen on Spotify!
Underbelly: Nights of Nourishment (A new *even slower* offshoot...schedule on hold)
This Underbelly experience will center more of the resting/Being body vs. the moving/dancing body. We will create an energetic orientation shift towards Slow Community Culture dedicated to rest, nourishment, stilling, kinship, peace of mind from the external/wired world, freely roaming within ourselves, strengthening the connective tissue between us, and returning to the essential. We will have spacious, formless, non-verbal time on a cozy round floor with heartfelt/easeful music, no agenda, nothing to do or accomplish, elongated time to listen, bloom, reflect, imagine, sense, feel, and release ourselves from the endless stimulus, artificial hurry, excess noise, and addictive doings.
You are welcome (not required) to bring a journal, personal pillow/blanket, cup for tea, and other self care items. Wear comfortable clothing/socks. Therapeutic/energetic/subtle body stretching and tending is always welcome. Simply laying down for a while (eyes open or closed) is encouraged and valued.
When/Where:
Join the mailing list to get all the invites!
December 2024
Fairfax Community Church, Fairfax
2398 Sir Francis Drake Blvd
1st/3rd Mondays: Dec 2 (with live music by Daniel Labov Dunne) and 16
7-9:30pm
First Unitarian Universalist Church, San Francisco
1187 Franklin St.
Friday, Dec 13 (with live music by Destiny Grace Rhinehart and David Decker)
7:30pm
Limited to 50 people, tickets here
The Alembic, Berkeley
2820 Seventh St.
2nd/4th Mondays: Dec 9 (with live music by Scott Elliott Ferreter) and 23
7-10pm
***Please note: Underbelly will take a brief pause at the end of 2024 as Amy transitions to NYC and prepares a team to continue Underbellys in the Bay Area.
Insight Timer app/ YouTube sessions are now available! Follow, subscribe, share :)
What to Expect:
1) Arrival (container will CLOSE 15 min after start time, please show up on time! Leaving early is permitted): This is a time to unwind on your own and find your way into your body.
2) 40 minute facilitated opening (guided somatic meditation, helping the body have a conversation with the present moment)
3) Deep dive (a time for your own body to guide you while immersed in music)
4) Facilitated closing (closing meditation and simply being with one another in the quiet)
5) Please read the Underbelly Code of Conduct and Logistics here
Contribution
~Sliding scale: $25-$30 (option to pay at the door)
~If you are experiencing financial hardship, please let us know, no one will be turned away.
~Pre-pandemic passes no longer valid/no refunds.
~Ways to contribute:
1) Venmo: @amy-rogg (last 4 phone digits 0330). When sessions are at The Alembic, you'll pay them: @BerkeleyAlembic
2) Paypal: payment link here
3) Cash
4) Support us on Patreon
Covid Protocol:
~Please do not attend if you have been exposed or have symptoms.
~Rapid/antigen testing always encouraged.
~Mask as needed.
About the Creator:
Amy Rogg (she/her) is an activator and nurturer of the human spirit. She is half Taiwanese/half white of Jewish descent, born in Denver Colorado and raised mostly in the Bay Area. She is the conduit, creator, and facilitator of Underbelly: The Art of Slowing Down. Amy has a B.A. in television/film production and studied acting/improv in Los Angeles. She has led yoga (E-RYT 500) and meditation for over a decade, is a certified herbalist, and has been facilitating/engaging in somatic and relational movement practices since 2012.
Some of her inspirations: nature, Hakomi, Continuum, The Artist's Way, Movement Liberation, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Stephen Jenkinson, Gabor Maté, Paul Bergner, Heather Luna, Anna Halprin, Resmaa Menakem, Sarah Blondin, Bill Plotkin, Marc-André Leclerc, Jeong Kwan, Yat Malmgren, David Whyte, Qi Gong, Yoga, GAGA, Contact Improvisation/Underscore, Fusion/Microfusion, Open Floor, Soul Motion, Dancing Freedom, 5 Rhythms, Ecstatic Dance, romantic relationships, and her mama (in spirit).
Instagram
Facebook
This practice helps us explore the art of slowing down with ourselves, each other, and our current environment. There is space to metabolize our emotions, strengthen empathy and intuition, and develop an intimate relationship with our bodies and the world around us. We practice being in the questions themselves- listening and yielding to the intelligence of life without pushing, controlling, or fixing. Room is made for nuance, complexity and paradox. Our individuation and togetherness are felt in a group field—deepening our presence and attunement with one another, co-regulating our nervous systems, being held, witnessed, considered, and noticed exactly as we are. We meet ourselves AS IS, without grasping for more, escaping, transcending, or resigning. We re-learn what it is to be relational instead of transactional. To commune instead of consume. To be of service instead of self-serving. To rest back into more vastness and organicity, releasing tight circuits of linearity, programming and conditioning we've inherited or been entrained to. Spend quality time with your body, breath, and being. Come back to the foundations. Sink back into reverence. Voyage beneath the surface of our fast culture, and dive into a slow sanctuary for unearthing what is alive, tender, and honest for you in every moment.
This experience is not a solution, method, workshop or teaching of tools. It is not a business, ceremony, or ecstatic dance/contact improv jam/cuddle party. It is a somatically driven experimental space that supports bodily intelligence, nervous system co-regulation, ample rest, and radical self/community care. We incrementally and progressively nourish the foundational fabric of how we relate, strengthen the connective tissue of our humanity, and allow ourselves to remember what we have forgotten. This work is not done through grand gestures or patterns of immediacy, but rather, subtle...steady...patient...little steps. Every Underbelly experience varies depending on what is alive in the group field at that given time. All movement forms are welcome (authentic/personal movement, sensory/somatic movement, contact (improv) inspired movement etc). So is resting, pausing, meditating, stillness, witnessing etc. Participants may explore being solo, in negative space (proximity without touch) or discovering connection with others through consensual energy and/or touch.
No prior experience necessary, just an open mind/heart.
Music: emotional, slow, deep, meditative, experimental, film scores, nature sounds, ambient, soulful, silent, and live. Listen on Spotify!
Underbelly: Nights of Nourishment (A new *even slower* offshoot...schedule on hold)
This Underbelly experience will center more of the resting/Being body vs. the moving/dancing body. We will create an energetic orientation shift towards Slow Community Culture dedicated to rest, nourishment, stilling, kinship, peace of mind from the external/wired world, freely roaming within ourselves, strengthening the connective tissue between us, and returning to the essential. We will have spacious, formless, non-verbal time on a cozy round floor with heartfelt/easeful music, no agenda, nothing to do or accomplish, elongated time to listen, bloom, reflect, imagine, sense, feel, and release ourselves from the endless stimulus, artificial hurry, excess noise, and addictive doings.
You are welcome (not required) to bring a journal, personal pillow/blanket, cup for tea, and other self care items. Wear comfortable clothing/socks. Therapeutic/energetic/subtle body stretching and tending is always welcome. Simply laying down for a while (eyes open or closed) is encouraged and valued.
When/Where:
Join the mailing list to get all the invites!
December 2024
Fairfax Community Church, Fairfax
2398 Sir Francis Drake Blvd
1st/3rd Mondays: Dec 2 (with live music by Daniel Labov Dunne) and 16
7-9:30pm
First Unitarian Universalist Church, San Francisco
1187 Franklin St.
Friday, Dec 13 (with live music by Destiny Grace Rhinehart and David Decker)
7:30pm
Limited to 50 people, tickets here
The Alembic, Berkeley
2820 Seventh St.
2nd/4th Mondays: Dec 9 (with live music by Scott Elliott Ferreter) and 23
7-10pm
***Please note: Underbelly will take a brief pause at the end of 2024 as Amy transitions to NYC and prepares a team to continue Underbellys in the Bay Area.
Insight Timer app/ YouTube sessions are now available! Follow, subscribe, share :)
What to Expect:
1) Arrival (container will CLOSE 15 min after start time, please show up on time! Leaving early is permitted): This is a time to unwind on your own and find your way into your body.
2) 40 minute facilitated opening (guided somatic meditation, helping the body have a conversation with the present moment)
3) Deep dive (a time for your own body to guide you while immersed in music)
4) Facilitated closing (closing meditation and simply being with one another in the quiet)
5) Please read the Underbelly Code of Conduct and Logistics here
Contribution
~Sliding scale: $25-$30 (option to pay at the door)
~If you are experiencing financial hardship, please let us know, no one will be turned away.
~Pre-pandemic passes no longer valid/no refunds.
~Ways to contribute:
1) Venmo: @amy-rogg (last 4 phone digits 0330). When sessions are at The Alembic, you'll pay them: @BerkeleyAlembic
2) Paypal: payment link here
3) Cash
4) Support us on Patreon
Covid Protocol:
~Please do not attend if you have been exposed or have symptoms.
~Rapid/antigen testing always encouraged.
~Mask as needed.
About the Creator:
Amy Rogg (she/her) is an activator and nurturer of the human spirit. She is half Taiwanese/half white of Jewish descent, born in Denver Colorado and raised mostly in the Bay Area. She is the conduit, creator, and facilitator of Underbelly: The Art of Slowing Down. Amy has a B.A. in television/film production and studied acting/improv in Los Angeles. She has led yoga (E-RYT 500) and meditation for over a decade, is a certified herbalist, and has been facilitating/engaging in somatic and relational movement practices since 2012.
Some of her inspirations: nature, Hakomi, Continuum, The Artist's Way, Movement Liberation, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Stephen Jenkinson, Gabor Maté, Paul Bergner, Heather Luna, Anna Halprin, Resmaa Menakem, Sarah Blondin, Bill Plotkin, Marc-André Leclerc, Jeong Kwan, Yat Malmgren, David Whyte, Qi Gong, Yoga, GAGA, Contact Improvisation/Underscore, Fusion/Microfusion, Open Floor, Soul Motion, Dancing Freedom, 5 Rhythms, Ecstatic Dance, romantic relationships, and her mama (in spirit).